TCS NYC Marathon runner grateful to compete after overcoming epilepsy

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Richie Shane, a 58-year-old successful businessman, is preparing to run his sixth TCS NYC Marathon and doesn't take any of it for granted after having brain surgery that cured his epilepsy.

"I started this travel media company almost 30 years ago, while having 20 seizures a month, and I would be on the phone with somebody and hang up without realizing it, didn't remember who I was talking to and what have to redial," Shane said.

Shane has been seizure-free for 14 and a half years and has even named his boat "Freedom of the Seize" as a nod to no more seizures, his love of boating and his fun take on life.

When he learned he was one of the 10 percent who could benefit from brain surgery, he also learned he really had no choice.

"When the doctor said to me, 'Richie, no medicine is going to control your seizures, they're going to become more frequent, they're in the emotional part of your brain and are going to change who you are,'" Shane said.

When he runs, he says he's grateful -- and his spends the time thinking.

"Epilepsy kills a lot of people. It's a huge blessing I have been given," Shane said. "With research more people can get it. I need to earn this blessing I've been given."

When he runs over the Verrazzano Bridge at the start of the marathon, he promises to look left at his beloved harbor and at Lady Liberty and hope for seizure-free days for everyone as he gives thanks for his own.